~ Chapter 1 ~

I can see my spawn.

Abominations, all of them.

Bastards of my blood, and of my father's.

I wish I could kill them all.

But they are still useful.

Their demise will come.

But not now.

Not when I am so close.

As a rooster crowed from outside the bedroom window, signaling the dawn, a young man rose from a pile of blankets on the floor, wiping the sleep from his eyes he slowly forced himself up. He stumbled towards the window, pushed it open, and leans on the sill, observing the morning sky.

"Another long day ahead of me huh...," he groaned. Today was the first day of the fall harvest, which meant he had to start gathering and storing goods for the long winter that would soon follow.

Turning away from the window the man walked towards a small table situated in the corner of his room. On top of the table sat a small clay pitcher and bowl, grabbing the pitcher he poured water into the bowl and began to wash his face. After he finished, he found himself staring into the bowl as the water dripped off the tip of his nose and chin.

"What are you doing with your life Noah...?" he groans, shaking his head. Taking the hem of his shirt and finishing wiping off his face, Noah walked out of his bedroom and wandered into a small kitchen. He grabbed a couple of logs from the pile near the doorway and slowly stumbled towards the oven, tossing the logs into it.

[Ignite]

A flicker of bright light emerges from the logs. Slowly, a web-like pattern of burning wood seeps throughout the firewood, burning into a bright flame. The house smiles as the air begins to be filled with a comforting warmth. Noah rolls his shoulders as the flame's heat spreads his body.

"Right, let's get to work," He says to nobody in particular. He opens the door to the outside with a small smile spreading on his face.

"I guess I'll go grab some eggs from the chickens for breakfast," he scratches his chin. "and then I need to start getting ready to leave."

Due to years of living all by his lonesome after his mother passed away, Noah had taken up the habit of talking to himself to help pass the time. It wasn't that he was lonely per se. He quite enjoyed the tranquility and simple life he was living.

But sometimes, it felt like something was missing. Something wasn't quite right about his life, but then again Noah wasn't one to think about such things too much. He just shrugged his shoulders and grabbed his cloak off the hook near the door and stepped out into the cool, crisp August morning.

Wrapping his arms around his chest, Noah slowly walked towards a small chicken coop he had built a few summers ago. It wasn't much, only enough to hold twenty or so chickens during the winter but it suited his purposes nicely.

"Perhaps come next summer I'll build a larger coop for the chickens…" He thinks to himself.

Grand visions and ideas of what he could do burned in his mind like a dwarven torch as he opened the small wooden hatch he built into the back of the hatching boxes. Sticking his hand inside, he rummages for the smooth, ovular shapes of eggs. One. Two. Three… and eight. There are eight eggs in total. Gingerly picking up the eggs, he stores them in his cloak pockets one by one.

"I guess when I head to the Harvest Moon Festival I should see if anyone is selling laying hens…" he sighs.

It wasn't as though eight eggs weren't enough for Noah; eight was plenty enough for his breakfast and dinner. However, he knew that his chickens were growing older. More than one or two of them wouldn't survive the winter. He sighs. It saddened him to think about it, but such is life. Nothing from the smallest mouse to the largest dragon could escape death's bony grip, after all.

Reattaching the lock to the coop, Noah walked back to the house and took one of the eggs out of his pockets. Holding it in his hands, he turns them over, inspecting their quality. They were fine eggs with a light brown shade and dark brown speckles.

Feeling satisfied with the quality of the eggs, Noah placed the eggs in a basket in the middle of the table and turned back towards the oven. He threw a few more logs into the chamber and searched for a pan to cook his eggs. Normally, he would boil the eggs that way, he could have something to eat the entire day, but today was a special day.

Today marks the thirteenth year since the passing of his mother, and every year before her death they would travel to the Harvest Festival and together they would make scrambled eggs. This was a tradition he carried with him to this day.

He finds a suitable pan to cook his eggs after shuffling and searching through the multitude of cabinets, drawers, and bins of his kitchen. He had built the place to hold all of the tools and trinkets that he had, and everything was covered in a fine layer of stone dust.

After blowing off the dust from his pan, he places it over the bright orange flame of the oven. As he waited for the pan to heat up, he paces around the kitchen, grabbing two eggs from the basket and running them through his hand. He enjoys the smooth texture of the eggs and felt it very satisfying to fidget with them.

After hearing the sizzling of the pan, Noah goes to the pan, singing a tune that his mother used to sing.

"As I walk down the road~"

"I head East to the Great Oceans of Favonia~"

"But I ran into a gang of pirates…"

"and flee towards the south to the Holy Kingdom of Astra…"

"Walking down the road~"

"I find myself travelling all around,"

"But the North is where I will always find my home!"

"The grand forest calls my name…"

"There I shall find peace as I walk down the road~"

Using a pair of sticks that he had whittled, Noah whisks the eggs in a wooden bowl. Then, he takes the eggs and pours them into the pan. Using a spatula, he makes sure the eggs do not stick to the pan as he waits for the heat to do its job, turning the eggs a rich yellow.

After the eggs are finished, he pours them into a different wooden bowl. He then heads to his dinner table and eats in silence. Satisfied with his breakfast, he pushes the chair back from the table and stands up.

Returning outside, Noah walks back towards the chicken coops. This time, instead of entering the small structure, he grabs the feeder and the watering apparatus he made using some old buckets and broken pans. The chickens rush towards him, clucking and taking time to peck the ground, and gather around his feet. Smiling, Noah looks down and gently pushes them away with his foot and inches toward the door.

"I'll be back in a minute little ones, just you hold on!," exiting the coop, Noah walks towards a small shed near the rear of the house. Noah pauses for a moment and then knocks on the door before pushing it open,

"Hey mom, sorry for barging in… I need to grab some food for the chickens ya know?" he says chuckling to himself as he stares into a corner of the shed.

Sitting there in a crumpled heap is a skeleton, the skull having a massive fracture from the back of the head snaking to the brow, and a chuck of the right temporal area is missing. Still smiling, Noah crouches near the bed where the skeleton is laying.

"Hey mom, I'll be heading out to the festival today, so make sure you stay safe while I'm gone okay?" Noah gives a thumbs up to the skeleton.

"..." The skeleton, of course, does not respond.

"Of course, of course, I'll get you something I always do!" Noah laughs, shaking his head.

"Alright mom, I gotta go now. You know how the chickens can get when they're hungry."

Grabbing the feeders, Noah walks out of the shed. On the way out, he takes time to bolt the doors closed. After exiting, he walks over to the well, grabbing the rope and letting the bucket down to catch the cool water at the bottom of the stone cistern. When he pulls the bucket back up, he takes a small stone from his pocket. The stone crackles with crimson energy and feels warm to the touch. Engraved in glowing lines is a ᚠ. Noah attaches it to the side of the bucket. Afterwards, he heads back to the chicken coop.

Grabbing the feeders, Noah walks out of the shed and bolts them up behind him, then walks over to the well. Grabbing the rope he lowers the bucket down, after pulling it back up he pulls a small stone from his pocket and fixes it to the side of the waterer pouring the water from the well into it, then heads back to the coop.

"Alright, my little ones! I've gotten your food and water! Remember to behave while I'm gone, ok? I'll only be out for a couple days!" Noah calls out as the chickens once again rush him.

The chickens form a sea of feathers and dust as he places the buckets on the ground, each one wanting their fair share of the food and water.

"They can look so happy for such simple creatures," Noah shakes his head and smiles. He exits the coop, getting reading to leave. He enters his house again and grabs a knapsack from a corner of the kitchen. This causes an orchestra of metallic sounds to ring out from the inside of the knapsack. Noah walks over to the wash table and grabs a small leather purse that lets out a quieter clanking of coins. He attaches the small pouch to his belt.

Heading back towards the kitchen, Noah pauses and places the knapsack on the ground and walks toward the table and grabs the leftover eggs from the basket on the table.

It would be quite a waste to leave these behind, Noah thinks to himself as he walks back to the oven and fills a pot with water using a bucket he keeps in the corner and boils the eggs. Half an hour passes and the eggs sink to the bottom. While grabbing the eggs from the pot, he places them on a flat surface and quickly spins them to make sure they're fully cooked. Satisfied with the outcome, Noah stashes the freshly cooked eggs in his pocket after wrapping them in a bit of cloth.

Closing the door behind him, Noah walks down an old hunting path that will eventually lead to the main road. From there, he will head south towards the Merchant City of Ardset, located within the Tharkain Empire. Hoisting the knapsack high on his shoulder, Noah begins to hum.

"As I walk down the road~"

"I head East to the Great Oceans of Favonia…"